“Our war is not with flesh and blood.” Paul “Love yourself.” Jesus I sat with a man last week who is trying to get out of debt. He’s got the usual sort of stuff – a bit of credit card…
Category: General
Why The Holidays Are Hard
Lets face it. No one can escape the festal fervor of this season. Whether you want to or not, you are anticipating Christmas. Blame it on everyone. Like Starbucks, with those beady little red cups everywhere. Which I imagine to…
How To Make Your Holidays More Meaningful
“When you’ve nothing else construct ceremonies out of the air and breath upon them.” Cormac McCarthy It doesn’t take much to make your holidays more meaningful. But it sure is easy to believe it does. Our family was adopted last…
Enemies Where You Least Expect
“The tongue has the power of life and death.” Proverbs 18:21 I have a young face. I really do. Go look at my picture. I once got carded at a liquor store and even with an I.D., the woman wasn’t…
For When You Are Stuck
“There is no way out of the inner life. So one had better get into it.” Parker Palmer “The spiritual life does not remove us from the world but leads us deeper into it” Henri Nouwen “Let me learn by…
Real Guilt Doesn’t Feel Like Guilt
“Don’t you realize that it is God’s kindness that is trying to lead you to him and change the way you think and act?” Romans 2:4 “Those who look to him are radiant. There faces are never covered in shame.”…
Parenting As One Thing
“A parent’s unconscious is a child’s first reality.” Louis Cozolino “Love covers over a multitude of sins.” 1 Peter 4:8 Brandt had been crying for over an hour. I mean this guy was straight singing the blues wailing. And there…
Why You Must Trust Your Emotions
“Emotions are the language of the soul. They are the cry that gives the heart a voice.” Dan Allender, Tremper Longman “I’ve never met an irrational emotion. Once you know the whole story, they always make sense.” Sue Johnson “Things…
Give A Man His Swagger
“Don’t muzzle your ox as he treads the grain press.” Deuteronomy 25:4 “I did it!” Brandt Yesterday morning during the middle of my first sip of coffee, our two year old son Brandt ran into the room. “I wanna go…
Christmas Is About The Stuff
“The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.” John 1:14 “God looked over everything he had made; it was so good, so very good!” Genesis 1:31 “Everything is already yours as a gift.” 1 Corinthians 3:21 The…
Guilt Is Easier Than Pain
A divorced man came to me recently to get his life back. He was pretty beat up. Let me state the obvious for us all: Divorce is brutal. An end to a story that lovers never imagine would end. I’ve…
Man Pressure
“Our view of spiritual manhood has more to do with continuing to function in spite of difficulties than with successfully overcoming them.” Larry Crabb, Don Hudson, Al Andrews My friend Mary Ellen stopped me in the hallway one day at…